Rosemary's Baby is a 1967 horror novel by American writer Ira Levin, his second published book. It sold over 4 million copies, "making it the top bestselling horror novel of the 1960s." [1] The commercial success of the novel helped launch a "horror boom", where horror fiction would achieve enormous commercial success.[2]

Contents

The book centers on Rosemary Woodhouse, a young woman who has just moved into the Bramford, an old Gothic Revival styleNew York City apartment building with her husband, Guy, a struggling actor. At the time Guy had only appeared in small roles in the stage plays Luther, Nobody Loves an Albatross, and various TV commercials. The pair is warned that the Bramford has a disturbing history involving witchcraft and murder, but they choose to overlook this. Rosemary has wanted children for some time, but Guy wants to wait until his career is more established.

Rosemary and Guy are quickly welcomed to the Bramford by neighbors Minnie and Roman Castevet, an eccentric elderly couple. Rosemary finds them meddlesome and absurd, but Guy begins paying them frequent visits.

After a theatrical rival suddenly goes blind, Guy is given an important part in a stage play. Immediately afterward, Guy unexpectedly agrees with Rosemary that it is time to conceive their first child; she subsequently becomes pregnant.

Guy's performance in the stage play brings him favorable notices and he is subsequently cast in other, increasingly important roles; he soon begins to talk about a career in Hollywood.

After receiving a warning from a friend, who also becomes mysteriously ill, Rosemary discovers that her neighbors are the leaders of a Sataniccoven, and she suspects they intend to steal her child and use it as a sacrifice to the Devil. Despite her growing conviction, she is unable to convince anyone else and soon becomes certain that there is no one actually on her side, least of all her own husband. Ultimately, Rosemary finds that she is wrong about the coven's reason for wanting the baby — the baby that she delivers is the Antichrist, and Guy is not actually the father; Satan is.